The Scent Of Malice | drarry

seven | spit

Following this realisation, Harry's next decision was that he was to carry on acting the way he had before: as if he had no interest whatsoever in the other boy.

Draco was insufferable enough as it was (even if he was also hot), and Harry didn't want to give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him, and validating his vanity.

No, instead he would ignore the other boy entirely, hope he got bored, and then forget about the whole thing. Hopefully.

But Draco Malfoy did not take kindly to being ignored. In fact, he was outraged.

"Potter's in love with me, for Christ's sake," he complained to Pansy after a particularly brutal rejection. "I don't know why he's acting like he isn't. I mean, he's hardly noticed me all day - and I made sure my shirt rode up when I took my jumper off in Divination and everything!"

"Inexplicable," grinned Pansy.

"I'm going to have to start being more obnoxious to him," Draco decided, talking more to himself than to the girl. "He deserves to suffer a lot more than he is."

He ran a hand through his immaculate hair - it had taken him 45 precious minutes that morning, and Potter had barely even looked at it.

What could he do to get Potter's attention again? Draco had reluctantly realised his ego was growing quite dependent on the other boy's confirmed attraction to him, and it wasn't something he wanted to lose.

Luckily, dinner time was approaching, the sole meal Potter seemed not to skip these days, and Malfoy deliberately chose a seat in the Great Hall that he knew would be near the section of the Gryffindor table usually chosen by Potter and his little friends.

And he was not disappointed - they arrived like clockwork at 6pm to take their usual seats. Granger had her monkeys well trained.

"Chosen a seat with a view, have you, Potter?" Draco asked, already enjoying himself.

Harry didn't look up from his plate, which dampened Draco's mood slightly, but he supposed he'd just have to try a little harder.

"Apparently you didn't attend the Quidditch match last week," he continued. "Did you get kicked out of the stands for public indecency? Or just not fancy being shown by Chang how to fly without having a nervous breakdown over the opposition Seeker? Not that I didn't do her after, of course, but at least she can control herself on the pitch."

Harry's hands formed tight fists round his cutlery, and he hadn't touched his food. Draco noticed this with spiteful triumph: he was getting under his skin, alright.

Draco tossed a few more inflammatory comments over to the Gryffindor table as he finished hits  meal, then his friends stood up to follow him out and he turned to Harry one more time. "Please don't try and break the Slytherin Common Room door down again tonight, Potter, it's getting obsessive."

With that, Harry could take no more, and grabbed Malfoy by the front of his robes to drag him aside himself before he could just leave with his friends.

"You're a coward, Draco Malfoy," Harry hissed, he pulled him roughly away from everyone's watching eyes and out of the Hall. "You talk so loud when your friends are there and say all these awful things when you know I won't react, it's cowardice."

Malfoy shrugged him off aggressively and stared down at Harry's face, his eyes burning.

"I'm pretty sure I say 'awful things' when they aren't there too, if you remember our nice little chat the other day," he snapped. "And I'm more than happy to do it now too, away from everyone. Is this loud enough for you? Because I've got plenty to say."

Harry didn't reply, too busy trying to steady his beating heart. Surely it must be loud enough for Malfoy to hear the impression he was making on him?

The boy was very attractive, but right now Harry was far more focused on how intimidating he was - the blonde was a good three inches taller and always knew exactly what to say to make Harry want to disappear.

"Come on, Potter," Malfoy goaded him, annoyed by the lack of response. "You wanted my attention. You've got it."

"What I really want is for you to leave me alone," Harry managed. He backed into the wall as he spoke, but forced himself to retain eye contact. Who would break it first?

Malfoy scoffed. "Me, leave you alone? Which of us fully assaulted the other just now and dragged him out of the Hall to get him alone? Which of us smelled the other in his Amortentia? Which got kicked off the Quidditch team for being too focused on the other Seeker?"

Harry made no reply, so Draco answered himself: "Oh yeah, you, you, and you. Plus you went round the whole school telling everyone you were in love with me, which is tragic."

"That wasn't me!" Harry snapped back, enraged now. "I don't know who that was, but the whole Amortentia thing is the most awful and mortifying thing to ever happen to me, so I'd have been the last person to spread it."

"You could just have denied it," the other boy smirked, knowing he was being unfair and loving it.

"Oh yeah, hadn't thought of that," said Harry sarcastically. "Oh wait, no - I did do that, but no one fucking believed me because you wouldn't shut up about it!"

Malfoy smiled a hateful, condescending little smile. "I feel like you need to just stop hurting yourself over me, Potter," he said. "It's getting embarrassing."

Harry felt like he was on fire. "You are the one obsessing over this, Malfoy, and you are the one hurting me!" he shouted, no longer caring if people came out of the Hall and heard them.

"And you're acting like I've molested you! Have I even made a single move on you? Have I made one inappropriate comment? No. Yet you make everything tense, and sexual, and weird."

Malfoy's cheeks flamed at this accusation, and he felt forced to retaliate.

"Really, Potter, you're deluding yourself if you think any of this tension comes from me," he said cruelly. "I mean, look at you and look at me. How on a million years did you ever see that working?"

Somewhere in his rush of humiliation and hurt, Harry realised that Malfoy's expression mirrored his own feelings exactly. He looked angry, but like he was hurting somehow, and if he hated Harry so much, why was he leaning in...?

"You're genuinely revolting," Malfoy continued, his mouth barely inches from Harry's. "I mean, the idea that you even have the audacity to-"

On a sudden, almost uncontrollable impulse, Harry closed the distance between the two of them and kissed Draco hard on the mouth, anything to stop him saying those cruel, hurtful things, anything to satisfy his own desire. He'd never wanted to be kissed so badly in his life.

Draco froze in horror; there was half a second of contact before he shoved Harry with all his might back against the wall, threw back his own head and spat violently in the other boy's face.

Both boys were trembling with shock and exhilaration, Harry didn't even reach up to wipe the spit with his sleeve but let it drip from his cheek loudly onto the stone floor.

"You wanted to taste my spit, Potter," Draco snarled in the cruelest voice Harry had ever heard. "That's the only way you're ever going to get it, you freak. Lick. It. Up."

With that, he turned and strode shakily off down the corridor, leaving Harry equally turned on and disgusted with himself for his behaviour. How am I going to get over this? He asked himself.

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a/n: thanks for reading! i won't lie i like this book a lot, hope you guys are enjoying it too 🤍🤍

~ paradisedraco